Would you like to start the Territory Game?
There wasn’t even a question like that. All of us standing on this land were forced participants.
I pressed my mouth closer to the microphone.
“You can all see the instructions now, right? I can see them too. Shall we all read them out loud together?”
“……?”
“[Looking for Light] Within the time limit, try to eat the light. Time limit: five hours. Reward: survival.”
A few friends chorused along with me.
Kim Jaei was muttering over there, “What is this, some kind of live-action signboard?” and Kim Seohyeon’s grandmother kept rubbing her eyes.
“This is like a treasure hunt. We need to find and eat the ‘light’ anywhere within five hours.”
“……I took time out of my busy schedule to come here, and now what is this?”
“Everyone, the reward is ‘survival.’ What’s the opposite of that?”
“Death!”
“That’s right. If we want to live, what do we have to do?”
“We have to eat the light!”
“Good. In five hours, let’s all meet again alive.”
I came down from the platform.
Weeeng, weeeeng.
Emergency sirens were ringing throughout the entire neighborhood.
The ‘light’ we were looking for here was like a ‘vaccine’ that would change the body’s characteristics so humans could adapt well to the world that was about to change.
People were clustering together and leaving the gymnasium.
The kids from Class 3, Grade 3 and their families gathered together.
“Wow…… what is this?”
“……Kind of freaking surprising and freaking interesting?”
This gathering also included the agency president who had nowhere to go and two worthless trainees.
“Right now…… what’s going on?”
This wasn’t the time to ask such clueless questions.
“We need to find and eat the light. Especially families should all scatter and move separately, and anyone who hasn’t eaten the light up until one hour before the end time should all gather in front of the clock tower at Swiss Village.”
“I think we could find it faster if we move by car……. But since we don’t know what the light looks like…….”
For now, they decided to meet in four hours. But there was something puzzling.
“Why are you following me?”
“I want to go with you.”
“Didn’t you hear what I just said? We need to scatter, Seohyeon. Huh?”
Kim Seohyeon, who was supposed to sweep up all the light solo and become S-rank, was just trotting along behind me.
Kim Seohyeon would survive somehow anyway, so I’d ignore him for now.
As for the Planet CEO and these kids who came along…… I’d try to take responsibility and keep them alive as much as possible.
“Kim Jaei, Seon Doyu. You two come with me.”
I called the two most excited kids.
“Oh, are you taking us in? Captain Cheolwon!”
“Yeah, dude.”
I took the car keys out of my pocket. The CEO’s cow-like eyes wavered.
“You’re not saying…… you’re going to drive, are you?”
I knew this would happen. I very confidently pulled out my license from my pocket.
“I’m a driver approved by the nation?”
I’d prepared all of this for today.
That’s when it happened.
“I found the light!”
A student who’d been looking around the back of the auditorium shouted excitedly in a loud voice, waving their hand wildly.
“Where? Where?”
“Look! It looks like this!”
“Wow, it doesn’t divide?”
“No, this seems to be one unit.”
Everyone looked curiously at something like a small cotton ball budding in the student’s hand.
“Then I’ll try eating it!”
“Never thought I’d see a light mukbang in my life…….”
“I know, right.”
Kim Jaei and Seon Doyu exchanged words while looking on curiously.
I turned around again to look at Kim Seohyeon.
“First, I’ll take grandmother home. You somehow Looking for Light and go to grandmother.”
“…….”
But this guy, his expression was full of dissatisfaction.
Why, what the hell is the problem?
“Why won’t you go with me.”
And then he glanced at Kim Jaei and Seon Doyu behind me.
“You’re going with them.”
It seemed like Kim Seohyeon’s sore point was that I told him to scatter while telling Kim Jaei and them to come with me.
I’m going crazy and could jump up and down.
Those guys came here because of me, so they’re kids I have to take responsibility for!
You’re the guy who’ll find your own way to live and even pave Korea’s path!
Watching the national hero who got all pouty about being discriminated against in this quasi-wartime situation, I was at a loss for words.
But there was someone next to me who went even further.
“You know Planet, right? I’m CEO Ahn Seonggil.”
Our CEO, who was suddenly thrusting his business card at Kim Seohyeon to do some gap-casting.
“When you have time, definitely come for a camera test. Since you’re friends with Yesol, you two can just come together holding hands.”
“…….”
Oh boy.
After all that commotion, I dropped off the sulking Kim Seohyeon and loaded people into the car.
When I picked up even a classmate who asked to be dropped off just up ahead, the truck gained some weight.
“Departing!”
In the front seat, the CEO and Kim Seohyeon’s grandmother got in, and the CEO was very restless.
“But, Yesol.”
“Yes?”
“Your license is Class 2, isn’t it?”
“That’s right.”
“This kind of cargo truck needs to be Class 1…….”
In other words, it was unlicensed driving.
“…….”
Anyway, now’s not the time to worry about such things.
First, I dropped Kim Seohyeon’s grandmother off in front of her house, then dropped the kids off in front of the clock tower, and headed to the river with only Kim Jaei and Seon Doyu.
“Why are you only taking us to a weird place!? Hey, hey, hey! Are you listening to me?”
“So freaking loud? Doyu, shut Kim Jaei’s mouth.”
“Yes, hyung.”
It was around this time.
The rocky path going to the Hantan River water trail trekking.
“But why did we come here?”
“Yeah, why? To sightsee?”
When they ask why, it’s the most awkward.
If I say I know the light is here, they’ll keep asking how I know…….
“Let’s just check it out.”
Before my regression, my family and I searched for light from alleys to fields, and around 10 minutes before the deadline, we found two here.
That’s right, here.
“It’s here.”
“Wow!”
“Split it and eat one each.”
“Yesol, what about you?”
On that day before my regression too, there were three people but only two lights.
So I ate one, and Mother took the other one.
But no matter how much we searched until our eyes hurt and our hands swelled up, no more light appeared, and Father eventually died and became a handful of ashes.
That history won’t repeat itself.
“I have to find my share again. You guys go look around elsewhere, and if you find more, come to the clock tower.”
“Where’s the clock tower?!”
……Right. These guys came from Seoul.
“Ah, why are we separating~ Let’s just go together~!”
“Don’t abandon us.”
“These clingy brats.”
“Ugh~ Don’t abandon the clingy ones~”
Hurriedly getting in the car, I glanced at the remaining time.
More than an hour had already passed since the light gathering started.
“This feels good after eating it?”
“My insides are tingling.”
“I want to eat more.”
“Me too. But is it okay to eat more?”
Of course it is.
And actually, it’s even better.
If you eat a lot of light, your body’s sensitivity increases proportionally, reducing side effects, and there were even research results showing it could lead to ability enhancement.
But on this land, there was exactly as much light as the number of survivors. So if you got greedy for light that wasn’t your share, someone had to die.
This was a monopoly game.
Hundreds of people had already gathered in front of the clock tower.
‘……Did they come out for a stroll?’
Elderly neighborhood residents were sitting in chairs drinking warm tea, and young soldiers were escorting them while monitoring the situation.
“They say a barrier has formed and we can’t leave outside Cheolwon.”
“This is serious. The connection isn’t working there at all either?”
“That’s correct.”
Volunteers were rolling sandwiches, and a donation line continued from the neighborhood coffee shop.
“Elders~ The coffee tastes good, right? Our shop newly opened right back there, so please visit us a lot~”
Now’s not the time for everyone to be leisurely doing that.
“Since time is running out, quickly search the designated areas and gather back here.”
Even in my past life, it was the military leadership that decided on the clock tower as the rallying point.
This wide open field with just one clock tower was originally a site planned for Swiss Village development.
The military that gathered people here would unfold what was called the ‘water droplet ripple operation’ together with citizens capable of movement.
Starting from this clock tower, it was an operation where mobilized troops would spread out like ripples from a water droplet falling on a water surface, searching for light.
‘Even before my regression, the brigade commander received praise for having a very clean command system.’
Watching the operation being commanded from the front, I confidently dusted off my hands.
I had something prepared just for today.
The ropes tied and hanging down in a circle around the clock’s face. I suffered like hell for four days and nights tying these.
This was the true goal of why I wanted to come to the clock tower.
“Jaei, Doyu. Time to earn your light. Grab the rope.”
“……What are we doing?”
“You know tug-of-war? When I say one, two, three…….”
“Pull like crazy?”
“Yes.”
I’d been waiting for this moment.
It was around then that the brigade commander and the sergeant major who were having an emergency meeting started watching this way.
“Heave-ho, heave-ho, heave-ho! Shit! Pull harder!”
Clang clang clang!
The hour and minute hands smashed, and the steel frames fell down making attention-seeking sounds with a clamor.
That was the end.
“Students, what are you doing!”
But this can’t be the end…….
“Hey! You little dung beetle bastards, do you know how much that costs?! This time for making the Swiss Village, the city invested 50 million won!”
……No way.
Seon Doyu tearfully said “That’s not it……” in the pouring attention, and Kim Jaei next to him was banging his own head saying “Why the hell did I listen to this crazy bastard.”
‘It went well.’
This couldn’t be happening.
